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Friday, 1 March 2019

World League for Rugby is a crap idea

I'm pleased that the likes of Owen Farrell and Johnny Sexton have spoken out against World Rugby's plans for a World League, largely because it's a crap idea.

Not only would the concept - a league of 12 teams playing each other once each year with semi-finals and a final to be held in the northern hemisphere in December - actually increase the physical and mental burden on players, with way too much travelling involved, the actual format being proposed is also utterly unacceptable.

The proposed 12 team league would consist of the current Six Nations teams, the four teams from the Rugby Championship plus USA and Japan - therefore excluding the likes of Georgia and the Pacific Island nations. What's more, it is proposed that there will be no promotion or relegation for 12 years!

So, in summary, a shit idea that ignores player welfare issues by increasing the amount of international rugby played and which utterly fails to grow the game globally by pulling up the drawbridge and excluding tier 2 nations (unless they happen to have a large economy).